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For people who do not know too much about meta tags, the search engines still read them. Even Google as long as they are extremely relevant to your site. My formula works pretty well. It's kind of like poetry. I research my keywords abd built the titel off of the keywords. Then I will write more keywords off of the title tag. I also wrote my description off of the title tag so everything flows together. This concept works great.

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Both sides in the original thread had useful points. Meta keywords are effectively obsolete for Google and should not be relied on; they have no effect on Google Search indexing or ranking. (See Google’s supported meta tags page.) (developers.google.com)

Use the title element and meta description the way they were intended: the title is still the main on-page signal for describing a page and is used as the visible result title most of the time, so make each page’s <title> concise and descriptive; Google may rewrite titles it thinks are unhelpful. The meta description does not change ranking, but Google will sometimes use it as the snippet shown in results — a clear, page-specific description can improve click-through rate even if it doesn’t move your position. (See Google’s guidance on titles and snippets.) (developers.google.com)

Practical checklist (quick, actionable):

  • Give every page a unique, human-readable <title> that reflects page content and places the main concept early.
  • Write distinct meta descriptions that summarize the page and avoid keyword stuffing; they are primarily a CTR tool.
  • Use rel="canonical" to consolidate duplicate/near-duplicate URLs (it’s a strong hint, not a command).
  • Use the robots meta tag or X-Robots-Tag header to control indexing, snippets, and non-HTML resources.
  • Skip the meta name="keywords" tag — it’s wasted effort.

Example (head section snippet):

<title>Example: Lightweight Running Shoes — BrandName</title>
<meta name="description" content="Lightweight, breathable running shoes with responsive cushioning. Free returns and fast shipping.">
<link rel="canonical" href="https://example.com/lightweight-running-shoes/">

For implementation and debugging, use Search Console’s URL inspection and the official docs when in doubt. Controlling how a result appears (titles, snippets, sitelinks, noindex) is useful, but the long-term ranking winners remain accessible pages with clear structure and high-quality content — which echoes ’s emphasis on usability — while and were right to focus on readable titles/descriptions that attract clicks. (developers.google.com)

References: Google — Meta tags and attributes that Google supports (meta keywords), Google — Control your snippets / meta descriptions, Google — Influencing title links, Google — What is canonicalization, Google — Robots meta tag & X-Robots-Tag spec. (developers.google.com)

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Member Avatar for stymiee

100% completely untrue. Meta Tags are not used to rank websites any more. Google doesn't use them. MSN doesn't use them. And Yahoo doesn't use them.

The only meta tag (between the description and keywords tag) that has a use is the description tag. But it is not used for rankings. Google, and MSN, will use a page's meta description tag in the absence of a Dmoz description (or you use the 'noodp' meta tag) and absence of relevant text on a web page. In those cases they may display the contents of your meta description tag. But, once again, this only affect the display of your page in the SERPs. It does NOT affect your rankings.

Meta tags have not been used in years and for good reason. They were, and still are, terribly abused by webmasters. Plus the fact that they are 100% in the control of webmasters and in no way affect the user's experience makes them useless for search engines. After all, why would they rely on something webmasters can abuse with impunity when they have the ability to determine the relevance of a page through many other advanced methods?

Meta tags are dead for SEO and have been for years. Using them will not improve your rankings.

Member Avatar for EWSitesCom

Does not help ranking but yahoo, msn, and google depending on how you utilize the keywords get you listed. As long as you do not abuse the keywords you will be ok. I do this for all my sites and They get listed. I cant aggree with you because the search engines tell me other wise. I do agree if they are abused and not relevant to your site you will look like a spammer.

Member Avatar for stymiee

It's not the meta tags that got you listed. You'll be listed even if you don't use Meta tags. They'll list every page they can find. That's their goal and their job. If you can't get your site listed either you've been caught cheating (i.e. using black hat techniques) or your site is inaccessible which the fault of a poor design.

And getting listed as nothing to do with rankings. And that is what everyone is after, getting better rankings.

Member Avatar for EWSitesCom

heres an example. i mispelled a meta tag by mistake. when i ran my report that keyword showed up in yahoo. how do you explain it showing up in the engunes. yahoo pulled it from the meta tags. i fixed the spelling of course.

Member Avatar for stymiee

Here's the bottom line: meta tags do not help your rankings and do not help you get listed. If you take an existing site and add meta tags nothing will happen. If you submit a site without meta tags it will be listed.

I can show you other examples of Yahoo finding misspellings and obscure phrases (like 8 words long) through meta tags. That means they read them (which I do believe they publicly disclose) but that doesn't mean they use them for ranking or listing purposes.

What matters, and what everyone cares about, is the effect on their pages' listings that meta tags have, and that is nothing. Saying meta tags are good for SEO is untrue and hasn't been for a long time.

Member Avatar for EWSitesCom

SEO is a complicated thing. Always changing. Everyone has their own techniques. My sem to work so what ever Im doing is working and getting me unique visitors. I do appreciate your comments though. Its does give me more things to look at.

Member Avatar for stymiee

Everyone does not have their own techniques. It's not like baking a cake where there are different recipes with each producing a different result. Meta tags don't work for everybody. Search engines don't arbitrarily decide they will use meta tags from sites a, c, and e but not from sites b, d, and f. They have an algorithm and it applies to every web page equally.

And SEO is not complicated. Lots of people like to think it is complicated and would like others to think it is complicated so they can sell them their services. But SEO is easy and straight forward. Anyone can do it themselves and learning it is easy. The first rule is always, "it's not as complex as you think". So many people like to think their are tricks and techniques for ranking well. There aren't. There are a handful of basic principles that if followed will result in success.

Member Avatar for EWSitesCom

is your way of seoinga site the same as mine then. all my sites get listed so i want to know. i probably know things you dont. you probably know things i dont

Member Avatar for stymiee

My idea of SEOing a site is making the site usable and accessible and then filling it with high quality content. Without even specifically mentioning or targeting SEO a site will do well in the search engines following that formula.

Member Avatar for EWSitesCom

this is what i do. i seo before i build also making a user friendly site at the same time. i do this because this allows me to save the names of the pages, site structure and site description.

Member Avatar for Candy_ME

some major search engines use meta-tag descriptions when displaying a search query's results, it's important to write a meta-tag description that accomplishes two goals:

  • Help obtain a good ranking in search engines that use meta tags to determine relevancy
  • Elicit a call to action, that is, encourage people to click the link to your Web page
Member Avatar for jackdsuza1

description text between 25 and 150 characters in length are effective

Member Avatar for beginer231

The role of meta tags to optimize more than you can reasonable use of he to attract searchers to browse your site

Member Avatar for myseopandit

A page's description Meta tag gives Google and other search engines a summary of of the web page.

Member Avatar for jack jastin

I do agree with you Stymiee! SEO is not complicated in any manner. What you need to do is put your efforts on a regular basis on a simple and on going manner.

Member Avatar for charlenej

In my opinion, search engines make use of meta data to display websites on how the site owner would like Search Engines to understand what their site is all about. Effective use of these meta data enables search engines to get the data and present it to user more quickly and accurately.

Member Avatar for mainstmktmachin

This is a genuine and giving some true info for those that are new to the concept of on page meta tag optimization. These tips are sure to come in hand. Thank you.

Member Avatar for brianbucknor

This is the main thing about it. My idea of SEOing a site is making the site usable and accessible and then filling it with high quality content. It would be done like this.

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